Former Olympic rower shines light on mental struggles to help others

TIM Crooks, rowing Olympian and author, spoke about his latest book Driven by Demons: Bipolar Olympian.

The talk was attended by almost 70 people with all enjoying a delicious finger buffet in the beautiful revamped dining room at Leander Club overlooking the River Thames.

Tim is a true sporting hero, who appears on the crew shields in Leander Club at least nine times. He rowed in the Munich Olympics in 1972 and won a silver medal in the eight at the Montreal Olympics in 1976.

He also won Henley Royal Regatta and the Wingfield Sculls numerous times and Silver at the 1974 World Rowing Championships.

Not only was he a very successful rower, he also won Superstars.

Tim is an incredibly driven individual. However, throughout his life he felt harrowed by mood disturbances, which were diagnosed as bipolar disorder when he was 44.

Tim started writing his book about seven years ago and had initially written pages and pages of anecdotes but hadn’t felt like it was coming together.

Sparring with a friend led to him understanding that his story would be how his mental illness had driven him in his life and rowing career.

While writing the book, Tim came to understand himself better and he felt that the whole process was a cathartic experience.

Tim hopes that the book will help others understand their mental struggles and that it will become a book that mental health professionals will read to understand how bipolar disorder affects top sportspeople.

Among the guests of the book talk were members from the GB Munich Olympic eight, Lenny Robertson and Dick Lester. Tim’s two crew-mates had many stories themselves to tell about Tim.

Tim’s old housemaster at Radley College attended and told us stories about Tim at school. Charlie Wiggin, who Tim rowed with on many occasions, was in the audience as well.

All in all, the evening felt like Tim regaling the audience with a Technicolor version of the book with extras on the side.

This book talk was part of series four of the Leander Library Rowing Book Talks in aid of the Leander Trust, a registered charity, to advance the lives of young people through rowing.

The charity has created opportunities for young people to fulfil their rowing potential. It is truly making a difference in the lives of young people. The talks have now raised more than £8,500.

During this talk, 19 copies of the book were sold, the full proceeds of which were kindly donated by Tim to the trust.

The next talk is on November 19, the postponed talk with Cath Bishop about her book The Long Win.

Cath is a trustee of the British Rowing charity Love Rowing and the proceeds of her talk will be shared equally between the two charities.

The Rowing Book Talks are open to all. Ticket price includes a finger buffet.

For more information email librarian@leandertrust.org and for tickets for the next talk, visit tinyurl.com/ 2drd3v4d

Irene Hewlett